The loudest voices by far are those that support the
army operation targeting the Rohingya minority.

Those voices refuse to call Rohingya by their name,
Rohingya. Instead, they’re called Bengali.

In fact, most people in Myanmar believe that’s who
they are. And many want to see them wiped
out.

In Myanmar, many
support the army’s actions.

There’s also
plenty of support for the government, especially Aung San Suu Kyi who is called
“beloved Mother Su.”

Rohingya
have lived in Myanmar for centuries. Most arrived from Bangladesh and India in
the British colonial period.

The resentment towards them has deep historical
roots.

Rohingya have been targeted since the country gained
independence from the British in 1948.

Since
1982, Rohingya have been denied citizenship. They have no ID cards, no basic
rights, their land has been seized. They are a stateless people.

They’ve also been
left off the list of the country's 135 official ethnic groups.

Hate propaganda
has circulated for decades, spreading the belief that minority groups,
including the Rohingya are a threat to Myanmar’s dominant Burmese race.

U Myo Win is the
Executive Director of the Yangon-based Smile Education and Development
Foundation. He says since 1985, propaganda has been circulated in a series of books
promoted by the government, saturating the
country with hostility towards Rohinyga.

“Practically
I noticed this since 1985, consequently they make a strategic systematic
propaganda. The biggest countrywide campaign against [the] Muslim minority,”
stated Win.

Independent media group, Shwe Myitmakha, is known
for its strong defence of civil rights and minorities.

I visited their office in Yangon, and met with
founder and respected journalist May Thingyan Hein.

When I asked her opinion on the Rohingya question,
she told me that she refers to the group as ‘Bengalis’. She does not consider
them ethnic people of Myanmar.

May Thingyan Hein has long promoted the rights of
Myanmar’s ethnic minority groups.

She has also stood up against the military, and
because of that she has been a fugitive, interrogated, arrested, and her works
banned.

But when it comes to the Rohingya, long time
dissident, May Thingyan Hein agrees with the Government.

“Now they are fighting. Burn their houses and
other house and kill other people. That’s not good. This is a conflict, they
made the conflict,” she told me.

Despite her usual defense of human rights, May
Thingyan Hein echoes what most people in Myanmar believe, that the Rohingya
want land, and a Muslim state in Rakhine.

“This is not Human Rights issue.
Because they need the land. They want the land. This is not Human Rights issue.
This is not the religion issue. They want the land,” she stated.

Most people in
Myanmar would agree.

Rohingya have had
their land seized since the 1960s. And have been pushed out of Mynamar in
successive waves of violence since the 1970s. Now, more live outside Myanmar
than inside the country.

Phil Robertson, Deputy
Director of Human Rights Watch, Asia, says this
latest surge in violence and persecution is not isolated.

It is part of a much longer,
systematic attempt to wipe the Rohingya out of Myanmar.

“People don't
really recognize that there are still over thirty thousand refugees from the
ethnic cleansing that took place back in 1992-1993 against the Rohingya,”
Robertson said. “They are still in Bangladesh.”

When Rohinya insurgents attacked a
police post on August 25th,
the Thatmadaw, or military unleashed horrific violence, claiming they
are conducting a ‘clearance operation’ against Rohingya terrorists.

Given
most people in Myanmar see the Rohingya as a threat, it wasn’t hard to justify
abuses to people within Myanmar.

Rohingya suffer
the worst persecution in Myanmar. But Robertson says minority groups all over
the country are targeted by the military.

“The situation for the
Rohingya is bleak but I would say the situation on Human Rights issues in Burma
is similarly bleak,” he commented. “I think the Rohingya represent the sort of
the worst case of the bad situation that growing there.”